Agree outside of Toronto the Raptors are not top of mind other than a small number. Until they win some play off rounds on a regular basis, or heaven forbid a championship they will not be “Canada’s” team much like the Blue Jays in the 80’s. There are were and even now probably as many Yankee fans outside of Toronto as there are Blue Jays fans. Plus the NBA is in my opinion like the NFL here, everyone has a favourite team but very few feel a home town attachment to one. Sure small numbers in Vancouver for Seattle and southern Ontario for Buffalo but even when the Bills played here there was always as many opposition fans as Bills fans in the crowd. So someone in Saskatoon might be a OKC fan because of Durant rather than a Raptor fan just because they are a Canadian based team.
My earlier post was simply a response to someone posting erroneous information about the Raptors in particular.
By the way Calgary Red love your signature, laughed as I read it
You don’t think Vancouver is one of the most multi-cultural cities in Canada with their 25% ethnic Chinese or their huge Indian/Sri Lankan population?
Maybe we should be saying to all these people “leave your Cricket Bats, soccer balls at the door when you arrive in Canada” make them sit through hours of lectures about CFL football with Rod Black… :roll: then make them takes quizes about football and hockey.
Atmosphere at Raptor games is off the hook - - sold out and loud. The back and forth fast pace of NBA games lends itself perfectly to young fans.
Leafs will sell out, but it’s a bunch of corporate types who just sit on their hands and clap politely when prompted. Argos have empty seats with a few senile senior citizens drooling on themselves.
Asking Nav Bhatia for tips on how to increase CFL attendance is such an asinine idea. Might as well ask Carlton the Bear for some advice on how the Leafs sell out every game too.
Atmosphere at Raptor games is off the hook - - sold out and loud. The back and forth fast pace of NBA games lends itself perfectly to young fans.
Leafs will sell out, but it's a bunch of corporate types who just sit on their hands and clap politely when prompted. Argos have empty seats with a few senile senior citizens drooling on themselves.
Asking Nav Bhatia for tips on how to increase CFL attendance is such an asinine idea. Might as well ask Carlton the Bear for some advice on how the Leafs sell out every game too.
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Just out of curiosity are you a "Red Striper"?
Just out of curiosity are you a “Red Striper”?
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Is that some kind of reference to the soccer team in Toronto?
There’s a small contingent of people in Toronto who pretend to be soccer “fans” and try to support that Tenth Division league as if it were the EPL or Italian league. I’m definitely not one of them.
I have about as much interest in soccer as I do in lacrosse or women’s basketball.
Ok Area I’ll call you on that one.
The Grizzlies were not a “colossal failure”. Solid growing fan base that was not given enough time, along with decent corporate support from the start. Just bad management and a change in owners who wanted to move the team and supported by the head office of the league for reasons still not evident,.
Sounds like the Jets and Nordiques to me, would you call them colossal failures?. Now both of those markets are soon to be back in the NHL, and although Seattle will be ahead of them would never say never to Vancouver as a NBA market.
[quote="TravelPatB"]OK drummer. Fine then. Let's look at a page in this CFL board when the CFL was heading in its playoffs - when interest should be at its peak.
Lets go to Page 4 of this CFL Board. That page (all on one page) covers any topic that got discussed here for which the most recent post was between November 13th to November 27th. Should have been lots of topics discussed with a lot of views at that time of year when interest in the CFL should have been at its peak. But one single page covered everything being discussed over a two week period. Only a handful of threads on Pages 1-3 of this board with more recent posts were active over that period of November 13 - 27. So at a time when interest should have been high the league board took two weeks to fill one page worth of threads and not one topic created during those two weeks had more than 4,023 views. (I think - I just scrolled through these pages quickly)
Or even looking at the Ti-Cats chat board (to compare a team to a team) which is not as busy as the Riders message board - but may be the second busiest in the league and even in the two weeks of the Cats participating in the playoffs and Grey Cup only 3 pages were needed for two weeks worth of threads being discussed - and no thread created during that two week period had more than 5200 views.
Compare that to a mid season Raptors board and in just the last week over 8 pages of threads have been discussed with multiple threads created in the last week having over 10,000 views.
Is that a fairer comparison for you drummer?
I swear I've never been on any sports discussion board where so many seem to have the need to put down other leagues fans as if that somehow is showing support for the CFL. Just strange to me. It doesn't make me a better CFL fan to trash the NFL, NHL, HBA, MLS or its fans. Nor does it make me a bad CFL fan to point out things other leagues seem to be doing better - like attracting younger engaged fans or being critical of things the CFL could improve on or should be striving for.
(With perhaps the exception of Red Patch Boys and their hate of the Argos. But at least they have the excuse of tying to protect their team's turf for that attitude.)[/quot
10,000 Raptor posts, 8 pages, everyone going crazy over the Raptors and their increase TV#, yet those huge Raptor numbers are not even half of the Argos or CFL
Raptors are a niche team with minimal interest at best outside of the GTA.
The TV numbers speak volume.
So other then the GTA, not sure what the CFL can get out of the BB superfan?
[quote="ArgoT"
So other then the GTA, not sure what the CFL can get out of the BB superfan?
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I'm not sure either. He became " super fan" by having season tickets right in camera line at end of court and a distinctive turban. So everybody sees him every game on TV. Sort of like that sign guy in Philly at the Flyer games with the bible verse. Other than that then went and promoted himself and his car dealership as being super fan. Built his own stardom
I've never suggested this guy has the answers just again would love posters to stay with the discussion rather than ranting about other leagues, discussing is great, slagging is a waste of time ( and if you are going to do it at least have the facts mostly right ).
And if someone could tell me how to quote a portion of a post properly I would appreciate it :oops:
I haven't viewed a basketball game since the many years ago that I was a high school student. I've caught the Raptors on the TSN news from time to time. It appears to me that the games are played by giants whose greatest ability is to jump real high and, shove the ball DOWN to score to which they receive ludicrous salaries. Lets get back to the CFL, most of us are likely not interested in BB!
Wow, your nonsensical assertions just get better and better.
If the Raptors are a “niche team” WTF does that make the Argos - - a community rec league team? Forget about a following outside the GTA, the Argos don’t even have a following WITHIN the GTA.
It’s absolutely shameful to only have 12,000 to 15,000 fans at the Dome. And don’t try to spin the “announced attendance” as being equal to the actual attendance. Unless you look at the crowd with the same glasses you wear to look at the DLine.
You missed the point completely, we aren’t here to trash basketball etc. So what if the game is played by giants? they are selling out and 5th in NBA attendance. It’s about getting ideas from the marketing success of the Raptors, try to figure out how they can attract over 19k for every game. They appeal to a younger crowd and how can the CFL appeal to a younger audience.
The CFL has to look at the success of other leagues, it’s figuring out why the Argos can’t draw a crowd and how they can market them.
Look who is spewing nonsense.
Niche sport by and large, like the Toronto Rock.
In fact, on some nights infomercials draw better numbers then the Craptors and the NBA.
The Raps were going downhill with empty seats & less than 50k watching on tv up until Jan 2014 when they started winning and struck a chord with the wethenorth campaign.
Now they do have a young & diverse fan base which helps create excitement around the city that is looking for a winner. They have always been there as basketball fans but had grown disenchanted with the Raps. The advantage the Raps have is that they play in the NBA which is considered a top tier league while many sports fans in Toronto dismiss the CFL.
Even soccer fans who follow MLS and Cdn national teams in TO are so dismissive of the CFL even though the CFL is the ideal blueprint for soccer to follow to get Canada into the World Cup every time easily. Even though we have this thing called the internet and 500 tv channels, a lot of people are in their own world and end up with views not based on facts.
Since you asjed Red Head. Most probably only know him as the guy that sits in the front row behind the one basket - but he has also hosted and promoted the annual Southeast Asian night for the Raps and apparently has done a lot of outreach in that community on behalf of the team. I was at that game one year and they even had an elephant all decked out in fancy costume that they brought out on the court to do a ceremonial ball toss with its trunk. It was kind of funny actually.
But here is more info on the guy and it would be great if he could or somebody similar do something like this to promote the Argos in some way.
Toronto Raptors’ superfan Nav Bhatia is not just your regular basketball fan; the owner of Mississauga’s Hyundai dealership has been religiously supporting the Toronto Raptors for the past twenty years, since he first watched the game.
On Friday, April 4th during his 14th Annual Baisakhi Day game versus Indiana Pacers, Nav was bestowed the honour of the team’s Community Ambassador. As a pinnacle figure in the South Asian community and proud sikh, Nav has been hosting the Annual Baisakhi Day Game for 14 years consecutively now, each year garnering additional community support.
Nav’s good friend, DJ Baba Kahn of Culture Shock stated, “To see how far the South Asian Community has come over the last decade in being an integral part of our city and not looking from the outside in is a testament to our community leaders such as Nav, so it is no surprise and a great move by the franchise to bring him on board as a community ambassador.?
After the show, Nav Bhatia was awarded the title of Raptors’ Community Ambassador. He job will be to work alongside team’s global ambassador, Rapper Drake to increase support for the franchise.
The annual Raptors Game which has become a tradition on Baisakhi day, courtesy of Nav Bhatia, who has worked diligently to attract the South Asian community towards the game.
The annual Raptors Baisakhi game is Nav Bhatia’s effort to bring the community closer to the mainstream and spread awareness about the game in the community.
Apparently the guy spends something like $300,000 each year on tickets for Raptors games that he distributes to kids in his community. Argos would LOVE a community ambassador like that.
